- Will Bitcoin’s slow decline be the most dangerous yet?
- Spot outflows and a sharp $8B OI drop hint at accumulation, not a full-blown distribution phase.
Macro headwinds are starting to weigh on the market. FUD is picking up, demand is clearly slowing, and bears are beginning to find their footing.
Bitcoin [BTC] hasn’t established a reliable support base yet, and with long positions stacked up, the risk of a liquidation cascade is real.
Still, the market feels like it’s on a knife’s edge. One decisive move from the bulls could flip the momentum fast. The next move likely defines the short-term trend.
Why Bitcoin’s linear crash packs a punch
Let’s take a look at Bitcoin’s daily chart. You’ll see five straight red candles lighting up the board.
On the 27th of May, BTC briefly touched $110K, then bears crashed the party hard, triggering a swift sell-off that squeezed the bulls tight.
But the catch is, this liquidity surge followed Trump Media’s $2.5 billion Bitcoin treasury buy. Normally, that’d fuel a pump, but instead, traders hit the brakes, dialing up the risk-off mood.
The culprit? Trade war jitters.
As AMBCrypto pointed out, retail cash is fleeing back to safe havens like bonds, draining momentum from crypto.
And it’s not just retail.
Amid the U.S. equity slowdown, institutional capital is stepping back, too. BlackRock sold 4,100 BTC, snapping its 52-day streak of consecutive inflows.
Source: Farside Investors
Bears are flexing.
In fact, Funding Rates on Bybit turned red for the first time in almost a month, adding to the downside pressure with the macro scene looking shaky.
But here’s the thing: Bitcoin’s been dropping in a straight line – no crazy swings, no solid support yet, no bounce back.
So what’s brewing? A full-blown distribution dump or just a tight liquidity squeeze ready to snap back?
Bulls’ shot at reclaiming control
Putting macro noise and futures flows aside, a single sell-off won’t flip the script to distribution just yet.
In fact, on the 29th of May, at $105,521, spot wallets saw an outflow of 8,175 BTC – signaling serious accumulation, not panic selling.
On the derivatives front, as AMBCrypto flagged, on the 23rd of May, Bitcoin’s Open Interest (OI) hit a record $80 billion, lining up with its all-time price high.
What followed? A sharp round of deleveraging.
At press time, Bitcoin’s OI slid to $71.86 billion. That’s a staggering $8 billion flush in just seven days.
Source: CoinGlass
That explains Bitcoin’s controlled, linear bleed. But without signs of capitulation from weak or strong hands, the bulls still have a window to strike back.
So far, this looks less like panic and more like the board getting reset, ready for a healthier leg, once the macro clouds clear.
